The present invention relates to devices used in automobiles, and more particularly to an improved roll cover for covering the cargo space of an automobile.
Roll covers are increasingly used in station wagons in the cargo space because the cargo space would be fully visible from the outside without appropriate measures. The roll cover is capable of protecting the upward facing cargo space from outside viewing. The roll cover is bordered on one side by the rear bench back rest, the two car body walls and the tailgate. On the other hand, the cover allows the full utilization of the cargo space when it is rolled up in its rest or storage position where it hardly needs any space.
To cover a cargo space, two different systems are known. One system is designed as a type of folded cover consisting of a cover sheet with rods or hoops. The hoops run on guide rails at the car body side and must be somewhat parallel. When opened, intermediary positions are possible, but their installation is costly because of the guide rails.
The roll cover can be placed at any time in various intermediate positions.
The other system, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,748, for example, is designed as a type of spring-actuated shade. It consists of two connected end caps with a rotating winding roller in the middle. The roller blind is attached to the winding roller, while the other end is connected to a pull bar. The winding roller is prestressed with a spring in the direction where the roller blind is rolled up.
On the side of the roller blind path, two guide rails with two hooks each are attached. One hook is located at the tailgate opening while the other is arranged half-way from the winding roller and the hook above to allow a half-opened position of the roll cover. To reach this position, the user must manually unhook the pull bar from the rear hook and transfer it to the front hook; he has to control this movement himself.
Another solution is offered by DE 39 41 711 C2. The cargo space cover is again designed as a type of spring-actuated feed shade. It consists of an oblong cassette housing with a rotating winding roller. The roller blind is attached to the winding roller and its free end is connected to the pull bar. The pull bar is hooked into the inside of the tailgate at such a height that the roller blind pull bar, which extends horizontally across the cargo space will change when the tailgate is closed.
The attachment of the pull bar on the inside of the tailgate is supposed to increase comfort.
The connection with the tailgate lifts the roller blind automatically when the tailgate is opened upward. Therefore, the access opening is automatically opened with the open tailgate without requiring additional movements such as unhooking the pull bar.
A significant disadvantage of the known solution is that the pull bar is necessarily pulled out of the tailgate opening when it is opened, or is to be closed by the tailgate, and moved a bit upward. Due to the roof configuration in modern car body forms, the tailgate is increasingly narrowed toward the roof, causing the sides of the roller blind in the well-known design to rub at the edges of the tailgate opening. In this area, the cover suffers unsightly damage. The known solution has another disadvantage in that the maximum extent of the roller blind to be rolled onto the winding roller does not result from the size of the cargo space opening but rather from the location of the final position of the pull bar when the tailgate is open. This amount of roller blind is significantly larger than what is needed for covering only the cargo space opening.
In view of the foregoing, an object of the invention is to create a roll cover that is designed like a spring-actuated shade and easy to handle without being damaged when the tailgate is opened.
The present invention provides these and other advantages and overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art by providing a roll cover having a compulsory guiding device which allows the cover to be moved upward when the tailgate of the automobile is opened so as to allow easier access into the cargo space.
The use of a compulsory or positive guiding device with an appropriate design prevents the pull bar from being pulled out of the tailgate opening when the tailgate is opened, while creating at the same time a relatively large access to the cargo space. The user is not required to unhook the roll cover after opening the tailgate and to let it wind completely onto the winding roller to get access to the cargo space. Rather, this form of a compulsory guiding device allows the pull bar to hold in an intermediate position which results in similar comfort as with roll covers that work with a gather principle and rods on rails.
The roller blind is generally as large as the length of the cargo space opening, measured in the direction parallel to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle.
Even if the compulsory guiding device must be actuated manually, there is a substantial simplification in that the operator does not have to bend forward to reach the intermediate position in order to guide the pull bar up to the roll cover housing. The compulsory guiding device lifts the pull bar and prevents an unpleasant forward bent body position.
The intermediate position can be realized in several ways. When in the intermediate position, the pull bar lies in a height clearly above the closed position, while in other cases the pull bar in the intermediate position is only retracted in the direction of the housing.
The circumstances are technically very simple when the compulsory guiding device holds the pull bar also in the closed roll cover position so that re-hanging is not needed.
The force for transferring the pull bar from the closed position to the intermediate position or the reverse can be accomplished by means of coupling links that couple the movement of the pull bar at least over a part of their motion field with the movements of the tailgate. These coupling links can be designed as pressure resistant and/or flexible. If only the movement direction is considered, it suffices that the coupling links transfer only the tensile force. In the event that the movement exerted on the tailgate end is higher than the lift on the pull bar with the compulsory guiding device, the coupling links can also be flexible.
The compulsory guiding device can be designed in different ways. A relatively simple compulsory guiding device consists of two one-armed levers that are arranged in the cargo or trunk space in a pivoting manner. They face from their hinge point in the direction of the cargo opening and have receptacles for the ends of the pull bar at their other ends. By pivoting the levers upward either manually or controlled by the tailgate motion, the access opening is reached in the desired size.
Another compulsory guiding device uses guide rails attached to the lateral rims of the cargo space opening. Slides are running on these guide rails. Each of these slides has a receptacle for the pull bar so that the pull bar, i.e., the extended end of the roller blind, can be placed at the appropriate height so that access to the cargo space is unimpeded.
When using the guide rails and slides, the slides are kinematically connected with the tailgate. The connection with the tailgate has, besides the greater comfort for the operation from outside, the technical advantage that it forces a synchronous movement of the pull bar ends and prevents jamming.
Depending on the way the connecting or coupling links between the tailgate and the compulsory guiding device are designed, springs must be used to enforce an end position of the compulsory guiding device, or such springs are not needed.
No springs are needed when the coupling links between the tailgate and the compulsory guiding device are rigid and inflexible. In contrast, springs are needed when the coupling links are not tensile pressure resistant. The latter can be advantageous example, when no good directional point for the coupling links can be found at the tailgate so that their movement stroke corresponds with the movement stroke of the compulsory guiding device. If the stroke is too small, the compulsory guiding device could, for example, be prestressed with springs in the opened position and be withdrawn to the closed position against the effect of these springs when the tailgate is closed.
The reverse solution is also applicable. The springs can run either in the guide rails or prestress the levers as coil springs.
Another embodiment instead of the use of coupling links to bring the pull bar automatically in the intermediate position consists of the utilization of the retracting force with which the roller blind is wound onto the winding roller. In order to assure a certain synchronization with the motion or the position of the tailgate, respectively, a locking device has to be installed that functions together with the compulsory guiding device. This locking device has three different states. In the first state, a movement of the pull bar is arrested from a closed position. This allows the user to bring the pull bar permanently in a position corresponding with the closed position of the roll cover. The locking device has a second state when the pull bar can move unimpeded from the closed position to the intermediate position by means of the compulsory guiding device. The third state of the locking device holds the pull bar in the closed position depending on the position of the tailgate. The pull bar is automatically placed in this position when the tailgate is closed.
The kinematic circumstances are very simple when these three states of the locking device are realized by at least two different positions of the pull bar. In this, the second and the third state correspond loosely with the different closing positions of the roll cover; the positions of the pull bar differ from one another only by a few millimeters.
The situation is especially simple when the pull bar works together with the locking device because the hooking in and out is very simple.
A very simple locking device results when a groove is provided into which the pull bar is placed. The groove has a pocket-like recess or a slot so that the tensile force of the winding roller causes an automatic insertion of the pull bar end into the pocket; this position of the pull bar in the pocket corresponds with the first state of the locking device.
In order to transfer the pull bar out of the pocket in the third position, the pocket can either have a movable wall or a corresponding lifting link. This lifting link can be a cam that moves the pull bar from a position corresponding to the third position of the locking device when the tailgate is closed.
So that the pull bar remains in the third position as long as the tailgate is opened, a holder can be used that locks the groove during that time.
This holder can be a ram seated at the tailgate or a slide activated by a cable or a ram that extends into the motion path of the tailgate.